BRANCH OPERATIONAL STAKEHOLDER FORUM MINUTES

Transcription

1 BRANCH OPERATIONAL STAKEHOLDER FORUM MINUTES OF THE SARS BRANCH OPERATIONAL STAKEHOLDER FORUM HELD ON 03 JUNE 2014 FROM 11:00 13:00 AT PIETERSBURG CLUB MINUTES RCB REPRESENTATIVES SARS REPRESENTATIVES APOLOGIES 1. Len Vorholt 1. Treaty Tloane 1. Portia Munonde 2. Sally Hansen 2. Adelaide Morula 2. Yolanda Shole 3. Elaine Havinga 3. Godfrey Modise 3. Jeffrey Malivha 4. Dionae Victor 4. Patrick Phofu 4. Eugene Du Plessis 5. Jaco De Wet 5. Sugar Ntwampe 5. Thapedi Majadibodu 6. John Stamp 6. Lucas Ntsoane 7. Chris ( SAIT) 8. Emmerentia Fischer 7. Douglas Sebothoma 8. Peggy Matshuisa 9. Karabo Sebola 10. Natalie Mokoele 11. Sealafatlou Mogale 12. Felix Phosa 13. Solomon Sihlahla 14. Anisah Moosa 15. Themba Mtsetweni Page 1

2 1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES Adelaide Morula 2. CONFIRMATION OF AGENDA Adelaide Morula 3. CONFIRMATION OF PREVIOUS MINUTES All Corrections. Felix Phosa s name was incorrectly spelt. Sally Hansen was absent in the previous meeting held on 11 March Her name was not noted in the apology list. The column for present was meant for apology. 3.1 A concern was raised that the minutes are not distributed or released on time. The Forum agreed that the minutes should be distributed within 5 working days after the stakeholder meeting was held. (SARS Standards nationally). Agenda items were not submitted on time to SARS. The Forum agreed that the Agenda items should be submitted two weeks prior to the meeting to Portia in order to allow SARS officials to prepare for quality and satisfactory responses.( SARS Standard nationally). The following Agenda items were then tabled Single Registration Registration of Tax Practitioners and Controlling Bodies. Deregistration Tax Refunds Notice of Objection Process Declined TCC Validation of Entities Effectiveness of the Appointment System Suspension of payments Dates for the next Meetings Matters arising from the minutes. Deregistration cases: Sally to provide such cases to Adelaide and Treaty for testing. 3.3 Tax Practitioners appointment: Agreed on a delay for 10 minutes not 15 minutes (SARS Standards nationally). However, all parties should be disciplined on time management. Dissatisfactions may be escalated to the Branch Managers on exceptional cases. Venue for future meetings: SARS has agreed to be on board from 2015 Calendar year in Page 2

3 4. NEW AGENDA ITEMS sharing the cost of the Venue and other logistics. Len Vorholt informed the house that for the current year, the Venue and other logistics have been paid in full. Sally also indicated to the house that her institution is no longer withdrawing from these forums. They will be with us even in 2015 Calendar year. Letter of Audit Findings: Adelaide has engaged the division responsible for the issuing of the letter of findings. Tax Practitioners were advised to check if there is any change with regard to the reasons for the disallowance of invoices from now onwards. Tax Practitioners have suggested that the auditors should rather be specific on the invoices that have been disallowed to minimize the work of accountants in verifying each invoice one by one. Secondly, Tax Practitioners will be happy if the auditors could contact them first, to discuss issues before closing off the cases under audit Single Registration / New Registration process. SARS is experiencing some teething problems on Single Registration/ New Registrations. Godfrey Modise SARS is therefore unable to respond to any issues pertaining to Single Registration until further notice. 4.2 Registration of Tax Practitioners and Controlling Bodies. The amendment of the Tax Administration Act, 2011 brought about changes in the roles and registration process of tax practitioners and Controlling Bodies. These amendments require that, in addition to being registered with SARS, tax practitioners also register with a Recognised Controlling Body. As part of the modernisation process incorporating these legislative changes, the registration of a tax practitioner will now form part of the Single Registration process. All branch managers, Sugar Ntwampe The Tax Practitioners raised a concern that all the Tax Practitioners were expected to be registered by Monday the 3 June 2014 with the controlling bodies and SARS and they are now worried that SARS will deny them service if their status is inactive. SARS has confirmed that all Tax Practitioners are guaranteed full service irrespective of the inactive status. No Tax Practitioner will be disadvantaged during this process until further notice. Emmerentia informed the forum that she has received information pertaining to easy file and will share with all her counterparts. Page 3

4 4.3 Deregistration s. Tax Practitioners have raised a concern that it seems de-registered cases are not totally cleared from SARS systems because they still receive correspondence from SARS even after de-registration. Suggestion is that SARS should improve their system to link to CIPRO. Sally, Portia, Anisah However, Sally will provide examples of such cases for testing. 4.4 Tax Refunds Refunds are rejected because the bank account number is invalid yet the taxpayer has been receiving refunds for the past 2 years in the same banking account. Sally, Adelaide, Anisah SARS responded by saying, they will have to come to the nearest SARS Branch offices to do the bank detail verification to avoid incorrect processing of refunds to wrong accounts. Example of such cases to be forwarded for testing. 4.5 The Notice of Objection Process. SARS has advised the Tax Practitioners to check if the letter of finding is not available on efiling before contacting the auditors. On the other hand SARS officials /auditors should ensure that they issue a letter of findings on all cases before closing the case. 4.6 Declined TCCs Patrick Phofu Tax Practitioners raised a concern that TCCs are declined even if the taxpayer owes less than the R1000 threshold across all taxes, including penalty and interest. SARS will escalate the issue to Business Systems. 4.7 Validation of Entities. Retention of existing VAT number: Tax Practitioners asked as to whether is it possible to change the trading name of the entity but retain the existing VAT Number. Suggestion: Such cases should be provided to Adelaide and Portia for testing. John Stamp, Adelaide, Anisah Tax Practitioners are encountering challenges when trying to work on entities that have changed from a cc to a PTY or when trying to do a name change. Page 4

5 SARS advised the Tax Practitioners that they should ensure that the spelling of the name corresponds or is it exactly the same as the original information. Example of such cases should be provided for testing as well. 4.8 Effectiveness of the Appointment System. A request for appointments varies from one branch to the other. The acceptable norm is 1 3 days to book an appointment but in other offices it might be same day. Compliments: All Limpopo branch offices were complimented and appreciated for the friendly and warm welcome at all times. The friendly willingness by Branch managers and their staff when assisting Tax Practitioners enables the accountants to be at ease when dealing with SARS. Godfrey appreciated the engagement of branch managers in assisting Tax Practitioners Recommendation by SARS is that Tax Practitioners should feel free to utilize the four offices in Limpopo. 4.9 Suspension of Payments. Tax Practitioners were reminded that there is a special counter for Debt Management queries in Polokwane Office for debts below R Debts above R are strictly handled by Debt Management Unit. All escalation pertaining to the Suspension of Payments should be escalated to Felix Phosa via fphosa@sars.gov.za after three weeks of submission of the request Request for an Extension by Tax Practitioners. Tax Practitioners are allowed to request for an extension to submit documents to SARS in terms of Section 46(5) of the TAACT. 5. URGENT MATTERS RAISED 5.1 Dates of Meetings. Godfrey emphasized that the schedule dates of the stakeholders forum should be strictly adhered to at all times. Postponements are totally not acceptable. Next Meeting dates: 12 August 2014 Page 5

6 11 November 2014 CLOSURE : 6. Date of the next meeting : 12 August 2014 Meeting adjourned at 12h45 Page 6